Biog

Monty Halls is a writer, explorer, television presenter and public speaker. A former Royal Marines officer who worked for Nelson Mandela on the peace process in South Africa, he left the services in 1996 to pursue a career in leading expeditions. Having achieved a First Class Honors degree in marine biology, over the next decade he circumnavigated the globe four times on various projects, leading multi-national teams in some of the most demanding environments on earth. Notable expeditions included an anti poaching project in the high montane grasslands of the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, the discovery of a sunken city off the coast of Tamil Nadu in India, and a (successful) attempt to find and photograph a rare crocodile species in the mountain pools of the Raspaculo Basin in Central America. In 2002 he was awarded the Bish Medal by the Scientific Exploration Society for his services to exploration.

His television career began when he won Channel Four’s Superhuman competition in 2004. Since then he has presented series and documentaries for the BBC1 and BBC2, Channel 4, Channel 5, Discovery Channel, The National Geographic Channel, and the History Channel. Recent projects have been The Great Escapes series. The first series saw Monty on the west coast of Scotland, where he lived in a tiny bothy on a beach for six months, following in the footsteps of his hero Gavin Maxwell. This series aired on BBC2 in 2009 as "Monty Halls Great Escape", hitting viewing figures of over 3 million. He returned in early 2010 from a further six months as a nature ranger in the Outer Hebrides, an experience recorded for the second series on BBC2 called - catchily - "Monty Halls Great Hebridean Escape". The third series, “Monty Halls’ Great Irish Escape” was on BBC2 in the Summer of 2011.  Monty has just finished filming a new series for the BBC in Cornwall about the threats facing the livelihood of the small fleet fishing industry which should hopefully be screened in late Spring 2012. And, the BBC’s world famous Natural History Unit’s new series “Great Barrier Reef” with average weekly viewing figures of around 5 million, has just aired. 

Monty is patron to, The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Help for Heroes, Shark & Coral Conservartion, The Shark Trust, Coral Cay Conservation, Dumfrieshire and Cumbrian Greyhound Rescue and is an Honorary Ambassador to the Galapagos Conservation Trust.

He continues to run expeditions and diving trips when he has the time between speaking engagements and filming projects. He has written six books, mainly on diving and the marine environment as well as Beachcomber Cottage for the first “Great Escape” series and “Great Irish Escape” for the third series. He has a new book coming out this Spring / Summer called “The Big Catch” documenting his time in Cornwall working with the fishermen with some wonderful photography to accompany the forthcoming BBC series.

His hobbies include playing the guitar and playing rugby - both to a mind bogglingly low standard. In the latter he has two shot knees, no pace, and doesn't like tackling and yet remains resolutely optimistic concerning his call up to the national squad.

Monty has recently just become a Dad to Isla Grace and lives with his partner Tamsyn Smith in Dartmouth where they are setting up a Wildlife and Media training business called “Monty Halls’ Great Escapes. 

You can also find out how setting up the business and settling into Dartmouth is going with his weekly(ish) blog. http://montyhalls.blogspot.com 

 on Facebook